CAIRO– An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a decision by the country’s prosecutor-general to confiscate the funds of top Muslim Brotherhood leaders and those of a host of their Islamist allies, a judicial source said.
The order also applies to Wasat Party deputy head Essam Sultan, prominent preacher Safwat Hegazi, Gamaa Islamiya leaders Essem Abdel-Maged and Tarek al-Zomor, and Salafist politician Hazem Salah Abu Ismail.
Among the Brotherhood leaders to which the order applies are top group leader Mohamed Badie; deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad Bayoumi; former group leader Mahdi Akef; leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party Saad al-Katatni; and the latter’s deputy Essam al-Erian.
The order also applies to Wasat Party deputy head Essam Sultan, prominent preacher Safwat Hegazi, Gamaa Islamiya leaders Essem Abdel-Maged and Tarek al-Zomor, and Salafist politician Hazem Salah Abu Ismail.
The decision came after prosecutors charged the above-mentioned figures with “inciting violence” and “providing perpetrators [of violence] with funding,” the judicial source said.
The court delivered its verdict at a session held at the Police Academy in the district of New Cairo.
The verdict is final and cannot be challenged, the source added.
Egyptian authorities have unleashed a massive clampdown on Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members since the bloody August 14 dispersal of two protest camps staged by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
The dispersals left hundreds of demonstrators dead and thousands injured.
Since then, Egypt’s military-backed authorities have rounded up hundreds of the group’s senior and mid-ranking members.
